Ray Hardee
Chief Engineer & Head Instructor
Course Specialization: Piping System Fundamentals & Piping System Assessment and Optimization

One of the principal founders of Engineered Software, Ray Hardee is also Co-Owner and Chief Engineer. Starting in 1982 Ray was chiefly responsible for engineering and sales for Engineered Software. Prior to establishing Engineered Software, Ray had over 13 years in the power generation industry. Ray graduated with Honors from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. Upon graduation, Ray became an officer in the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power program and qualified submarines.

After the Navy, Ray worked for Ebasco Services, and was involved in the start-up and test group where he would perform the pre-operational tests for both nuclear and fossil power plants. Ray has contributed dozens of articles and papers to various magazines and standards publications and has given over a thousand presentations on fluid piping around the world.

Jeff Sines
Application Engineer & Trainer
Course Specialization: Piping System Fundamentals & Piping System Assessment and Optimization

Jeff Sines has over 20 years of plant operations, process engineering, and training experience. Originally trained on the enlisted side of the US Navy nuclear power program, Jeff served 4 years as a nuclear qualified electrician, during which time he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. After accepting a commission, Jeff went through the Navy nuclear power training again, this time on the officer side of the program.

Jeff served three years aboard a nuclear powered cruiser where he served as a Reactor Mechanical Division Officer and Chemistry and Radiological Controls Assistant. While aboard ship, he conducted training on various systems throughout the reactor and steam plants, as well as water chemistry and radiological controls. His 9 years of Navy experience provided Jeff with a solid background in various aspects of plant operations including electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, chemistry, materials, nuclear physics, and thermodynamics.

After leaving the Navy, Jeff spent 5 years as a Mill-wide Coordinator in the pulp and paper industry with Weyerhaeuser Specialty Cellulose Fiber pulp mill in Cosmopolis, Washington. He worked closely with employees to analyze process upsets, identify root causes, coordinate repairs, and implement process improvements. Jeff spent the next 5 years as the mill's Operations Training Coordinator, where he developed and implemented a mill-wide operations training program, developed qualification standards, updated training material, and conducted classes. He also served as the commissioning and training coordinator on major equipment and DCS modernization projects throughout the mill. During the final year of mill operations, Jeff served as the Power & Recovery Department Operations Team Leader, where he supervised crews to maintain operation of high-pressure steam boilers, liquor evaporator systems, turbine generators, plant utilities, a solid waste de-watering system, and the chemical recovery plant.


George Stephens
Application Engineer & Trainer
Course Specialization: Piping System Fundamentals, Piping System Assessment and Optimization & FLO-Master

George Stephens has over 15 years engineering experience and has been with Engineered Software, Inc for nearly five years as our lead trainer for our FLO-Master seminars. George possesses over 800 hours of instruction experience on the FLO-Master topic, instructing more than 12 classes a year since joining the Engineered Software team and is now teaching our Piping System Fundamentals class. George earned his Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, from Central Washington University, in Ellensburg, Washington.

Before working at Engineered Software, George specialized for 10 years, as a process engineer for Weyerhaeuser in their Fine Paper Division. George spent his time there training mill personnel on the installation, calibration and maintenance of field instrumentation and on the data collection and analysis software.


Roy Lightle
Application Engineer & Trainer
Course Specialization: FLO-Master

Hired in 2007 by Engineered Software, Inc. as an Application Engineer, Roy Lightle joined the Training team for our FLO-Master seminars. Roy earned his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, Auburn Alabama. Roy has three years of training experience from his work at Engineered Software and as a graduate teaching assistant at Auburn University.

Roy worked for R. E. Hodges, LLC for three years as a Research & Development Engineer, providing process measurement solutions to the pulp and paper industry. Roy draws from his experience in Chemometrics and Computational Modeling while working for R. E. Hodges, LLC as well as his experience in fluid mechanics with Engineered Software. Roy is a member of AIChE, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, since 2003.


Michael Volk
Professional Engineer
Course Specialization: Total Pump Training

Mike Volk, our pump course instructor, is an independent consultant who has specialized in pumps and pump systems for over 30 years. Mike received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering, summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois. He received both a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Management Science from the University of Southern California. Mike is a registered professional engineer, and has more than thirty years of practical engineering experience in the field of pumps and pump systems.

Prior to founding his own firm, Volk & Associates, Inc., in 1982, Volk had experience in pump system design for Bechtel, held various engineering and marketing positions at Goulds Pumps Vertical Pump Division in City of Industry, CA; and started up and managed a Goulds pump repair center in Houston, TX.

Mike is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Pump Characteristics and Applications, published by CRC Press. In addition to teaching short courses on pumps, Mike maintains a consulting business on pumps to provide assistance on pump selection and system development, troubleshooting pumps, pump related expert witness and litigation support, and acquisition due diligence and pump marketing support. He has also represented Engineered Software with their PIPE-FLO piping design and analysis and pump selection software since 1994.